Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Whenever you remake a classic childrens’ book, especially if it has already been made into a popular movie, there are always high expectations and numerous hurdles to overcome. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the classic Roald Dahl childrens’ story gets the Tim Burton makeover for better or worse. What results is a twistedly dark tale of rather unscrupulous and unlikable people, and one good little boy, wandering through a sparse factory and not really having much fun. The audience too isn’t having much fun, the story feels like a retread of the classic and though there are infinite possibilities now available for CGI generation of the famous Willie Wonka factory, it feels as if we have seen all of these places before.


Tim Burton decided to go with a more faithful adaptation of the book and I can’t say I blame him considering some of the liberties with the story taken in the 1971 film. The problem may be that there is so much history to the story and the characters. The biggest problem though is that this film tends to be very uneven. The graphical arts, expected to soar to new heights in this re-imagining of the machinations of the Wonka Chocolate factory never occur. The work spaces are fairly flat and unimaginative and though Charlie does explain that there doesn’t have to be a point to the factory and its activities, there is little of beauty of note in the factory that does not have some function in the story.


As everyone knows by now Willie Wonka, a reclusive chocolateer, invites five children to his magnificent factory and promises them a special prize. The five children are a study in most of the seven deadly sins. Augustus Gloop is a glutton of colossal proportions. Veruca Salt is conceited spoiled brat. Violet Beauregarde is an overly competitive diva. Mike Teavee is a violent boy addicted to television and, in a modern twist, video games. The only one to avoid these childhood traps is the saintly poor Charlie Bucket whose family lives in a broken down house near the factory.


The characters by now are well known and Burton seems to take pride in making all of them as unlikable as possible, except of course for the sweeter than chocolate Charlie and his ever struggling family. The largest disappointment was Johnny Depp’s Wonka who I can only say was perhaps too weird to be accessible to the audience. Gene Wilder gave Wonka a manical energy and a wry sense of humor that made him endearing even when he was dismissive. Depp makes his Wonka perhaps more layered and deep but he is enigmatic and creepy. Wonka borrows heavily from Michael Jackson’s unbalanced actions in public. Wonka appears abashed and unsure of himself most of the times. He laughs at comments that aren’t the least bit funny, repeats himself, and often has flashbacks about his past that leave him out of the current actions and seemingly retarded to the other characters. Wonka seems distant and not at all interested in his guests or in his factory or really in anything except his private reveries about his father.


These flashbacks are perhaps where the film deviated the most from both the earlier film and the book. They give Wonka a credible backstory. Wonka’s interest in candy arose from his strict father, a leering Christopher Lee, a renowned dentist who never let his son have any candy of any kind. These pieces of the film were oddly more satisfying than the rest of the film. Though they provided a few laughs and were somewhat lacking in imaginative storytelling, at least they were new and thus drew a bit more attention than the rest of the film.


The music, provided by long time Burton collaborator Danny Elfman was another source of some discomfort. The Wonka jingle is nothing short of inspired. It reminds one of the Hershey Chocolate or It’s a Small World repetitive songs that burrow into one’s subconscious and don’t let go. I heard more than one person singing the tune on the way out of the theater. There were some interesting uses of classical music such as Also Sprach Zarathustra (also known as that music from 2001: A Space Odyssey) for Mike TV’s big scene. But for the most part the film was lacking in cohesive music. The 1970’s film had the musical number Pure Imagination which was sorely missed in the film as well as somewhat disturbing music from the Oompah Loompahs. Instead of a cleverly repeated rhyme assisted by psychedelic subtitles there were four unique and nearly unintelligible different tunes for each of the childrens’ less than graceful exits.


This brings me to the Oompah Loompahs, a clan of tiny workers all played here by Deep Roy. Roy must have practiced continually in front of a green screen to be morphed into an entire army of Oompah Loompahs but here the CGI action separated the actor from any emotion or interest in the character. While I appreciated the Busby Berkley inspired chocolate river scene it did not make up for Oompah Loompahs who seemed to be rather mean and grumpy. Aside from making snide songs they seem to exist in a generally disgruntled state probably attributed to a diet consisting of only chocolate.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is as sweet and whipped up a confection as could be dared under the hand of Tim Burton but like its founder, this factory trip lacks warmth and focus. It is colorful and the characters and the story always deserve a visit but there were too many pieces to this puzzle that just didn’t fit correctly. The kids may enjoy this bizarre trip if they can get past the creepiness but I don’t think this version will play on television as much as the Gene Wilder adaptation. At least there will be no sequel to the film, Burton has already deemed the follow on book The Glass Elevator unworthy of the effort of bringing it to film.